Nicola Coughlan is shutting down those patronising body comments
Nicola Coughlan has opened up about how being called ‘brave’ because of her body type is reductive.
Embracing your body and being proud of it are things we should celebrate especially after years of diet culture being encouraged.
However, calling women who are a certain size brave is far more reductive than we realise.
It just comes across as patronising and insulting because it insinuates that we should be hiding our bodies away.
Whether you’re a size 12 or 20, being proud of how you look is something to celebrate but Coughlan said she is not brave.
Speaking to TIME, the Bridgerton actress said the comments about her body during the press tour were disheartening.
She explained that she had worked so incredibly hard on the Netflix series but all anyone wanted to focus on was her body.
The Irish actress told the publication: “Don’t call me brave. I have a cracking pair of boobs. There’s nothing brave about that, that’s actually just me showing them off.
“I’m a few sizes below the average size of a woman in the UK and I’m seen as a ‘plus-size heroine.’
“I worked my arse off for that show. I barely saw my family and friends, and people were just going, ‘But your body …’” Coughlan continued.
“What if I was suddenly going to play a ballerina and lose a sh-t ton of weight?”
She said focusing on how she looks is so reductive because we wouldn’t do the same to a male actor. Instead, the focus should be on her work, her successes, and her talent and not what size jeans the actress wears.
The actress admitted she doesn’t find comments about her body nice and said they’re actually boring.
“I don’t take it as nice. Making it about how I look is reductive and boring. What if I was suddenly going to play a ballerina and lose a sh-t ton of weight, are you not going to like me anymore? That’s insane and so insulting,” she stressed.
The actress has a fair point. She has spent years perfecting her craft and for the focus to shift from her talent to her dress size is insulting.
We owe it to her to focus on her talent and rising star rather than making degrading comments about her body.
